Physiology

Shadow Gnomes tend to share a lot of physical similarities to their above ground cousins. They are squat humanoids with tan skin and long fingers. However shadow gnomes have much darker brown, orange tinged skin and tend to have red or purple eyes. Shadow gnomes tend to have almost goblin like features with long pointed noses and swarthy skin. They are much thinner than normal gnomes and have more angular features. The males tend to walk very stooped and the females have very elaborate hairstyles, the more elaborate they are the higher their social rank.

Psychology

Shadow Gnomes have very vindictive minds, they are cruel and anybody who is more cruel and single minded than them wins their respect. Their mastery of illusion and shadow means they take much joy in deceit and double crossing. They are great planners and the motivation for their schemes and tricks is always greed. Greed for power, station, wealth magic,there is little a shadow gnome does not desire, for them greed and envy are away of life and sharing is an alien concept. Shadow Gnomes prefer not to steal but to trick their unfortunate victims into giving what they desire and because of this they are known as wickedly efficient diplomats and traders with no scruples. Shadow Gnomes are however loyal to each other within their corporation and usually their caste.

Shadow Gnome Society

The darker kin of the gnomes tend to be called Shadow Gnomes because they are dark and cruel not unlike their sometimes ally the Drow. Shadow Gnomes are masters of illusion and trickery and use this to great effect. Like gnomes they tend to live underground but much, much deeper in subterranean labyrinthine caverns some of which lead into the Underdark. Shadow Gnomes value magical prowess and wealth above all else and their corporations are usually led by a master illusionist or warlock. The leader of the Shadow Gnomes is granted the title of Shadow King or Queen and since their founding at the admission of gnomes into the Enchanted Kingdom this has been a master illusionist either male or female The main units of Shadow Gnome society is the caste and corporation. The caste denotes what that gnome will do for their life and they are born into these roles, soldier, mage, trader etc. A corporation is headed by a Magistrate and is made up of different castes with an economic goal in mind such as mining, producing weapons and the like. The magistrate will be in charge of organizing any schemes or raids that will further this goal and a tithe is taken by the shadow king or queen. The head of the corporation is usually the most powerful mage and the heads of the corporations periodically have a magical tournament to decide who will be the next shadow king or queen. The period between these tends to be around two hundred years. However the tournament is usually decided weeks before due to inter corporation politicking and scheming.

Shadow Gnomes & Religion

Shadow Gnomes follow their own brand of religion developed during their schism with their kin. The Shadow Gnome religion is based upon a legend of this time that a strange and shadowy figure that had no definable gender came to their leader in the dusk period between night and day when shadows rise and showed them a land where they would be free of enemies. The lord of the shadow gnomes knew this was the perfect time to make his move and took all of his followers and all the gnomes that wanted to part of the gnomes union with the pixies and hobbits to this place and they followed a cave deep underground. Deep below Hollow they found a city of ancient magic and industry and this land they adopted for themselves and named it Darkiln. Since then the shadow gnomes have revered their 'dark savior” and many dark gods have been associate this with the figure including Coreliant and Delisha. The Shadow Gnomes do not worship regularly but their priesthood are very powerful and skilled in the unholy magics. Shadow Gnomes do not make sacrifice for their god but they do believe that's of trickery and deception please their savior.

Shadow Gnome History

The Shadow gnomes do not appear in history until around the birth of man during a period known as the shadow wars around twenty thousand years ago. However the history of the Shadow Gnomes stretches back much further to the creation of the second enchanted kingdom. Around sixty four thousand years ago the pixies hobbits and gnomes combined their lands in the southern sage forest and put forward the pixie queen as the leader. However a large portion of gnomish society were appalled at this and wanted self rule for all gnome kind. The leader of the shadow gnomes Ul'Maruth demanded the gnomes secede from this union but he did not have enough support so he took to using powerful magical attacks upon the pixies and hobbits but took heavily casualties to his own side because of the pure power of the pixies spells. Eventually Ul'Maruth developed powerful spells of illusion to give his faction the upper hand. It was all for naught however as the pixies called upon the elves of northern sage to aid them in restoring order. Now greatly out numbered and losing many followers a day Ul'Maruth conceded defeat and his faction of gnomes went deep underground into the realms of the underdark.

Deep underground and protected the shadow gnomes built their society based on greed and envy and always worked on greater magic with a dream of eventually conquering their lands back from the pixie queen and traitor gnomes. The first real attempt at this came during the period man appeared in Hollow.The Shadow Gnomes had found an ally in the bowls of the earth the deadly and wicked Drow. Together they believed none could stand against their power and so they can a hidden war against their kin. The shadow gnomes fought the kingdom of enchantment and the drow fought the elves. It was a war that was fought in the hidden places of Hollow and ultimately the outcome was a standstill and the fighting simply waned away.

The Shadow Gnomes then went into another period of isolation but it appears now they have chosen to come out of their hole but the purpose remains unclear. All that is known is that these gnomes of malicious duplicity are not to be trusted.